Ride On

Hi MatthiasHeil, the line "Standing 16 1 or 2, with eyes wild & green" is a description of the horse.

Traditionally, horses are measured in 'hands' - a hand is approximately 10cm & the hieght is measured from the ground to the 'withers' or top of the shoulder. In fact, because the hand is an imperial rather than a metric measurement, it actually corresponds to 4 inches (1 inch being about 2.5cm) & the 16 1 or 2' means 16.1 or 16.2 hands, which actually isn't a decimal but is 16 hands plus 1 inch or 16 hands plus 2 inches. So this horse is by my calculation (16x4inches)+(1 or 2 inches) = 65 or 66 inches = 1.625m or 1.650m.

The 'eyes wild & green' is more obviously a description of the horses eyes.

I looked up this song on here as I'm currently working it out to perform (I play guitar & sing) & I wanted to see what others had made of the meaning. The song is particularly powerful for me because of a painful split up from my partner a year ago & singing it is part of the healing from that.

Beyond the meanings commented on above, for me it also relates a situation where the differences between the two parties have taken them on divergent paths, so that to 'go along' with the other isn't possible whilst following one's own path in the circumstances one finds oneself. Nevertheless, whilst it could be taken more cynically as tinged with bitterness & irony, personally I take the song as a powerful expression of admiration & goodwill towards the other.

However, there is pain too of course & a suggestion of cruelty suffered during the relationship, but now almost welcomed & invited: 'Run your claw along my gut one last time'. The final lines of the second verse - 'And look for a smile to light the night, through a teardrop in my eye.' - to me imply the urge to take comfort in the arms of a third party, through the sorrow & loneliness of the separation.

fantastic song written by Jimmy MacCarthy, basically girl is leaving for one reason or another but he cannot follow.

the thing I love most about this song would have to be that it doesn't have to be sung by a man. Before I heard it sung (beautifully) by christy, I heard one f the sixth formers at my school sing it (again, beautifully), and I imagined it the other way around with the man leaving and the woman unable to follow. The way that either gender is able to sing it yet it still has an amazingly powerful meaning is a brilliant thing to be able to do in a song. I love it!

anyone who's never heard this song really should check it out, a very simple gorgeous love song. beautifully sung by christy

First heard this from the group "celtic thunder" where ryan sings it. Beautiful song, and it's definitely about a women leaving a man, but he knows he could never go with her for what ever reason.

Hi there, I'm just a silly and slightly confused German who cannot make a lot of sense of the line "Standing 16 1" or 2" with eyes wild and green" (even after some google-ing) - seems a little small for a horse? Or is it a toy horse? Or does it stress the artificial perfection of the ("toy") person? Hints dearly appreciated!

I see a stable hand of some sort having an affair with a lady. No matter what happens they can never be together. The claw refers to her long nails, she can grow them as she is a lady rather than a servant. When she leaves to return home each time he wishes she was still there beside him.

Well although you can see almost any lover-parting scenario here, the most probable is that the song is originally meant to be lament of a girl, whose lover is leaving for the army. The fine horse is obviously a military horse, and war is one of the few environments, where women just don't go unless forced.

The only hazy phrase is "run your claw along my gut", which might mean either physical symptoms of emotional pain ("hurts as if my belly got sliced"), or be a rather graphic depiction of a sexual intercourse ("the claw" being a penis, which - literally - runs "along the gut"). Since folk songs tend to be both eerily fragile and explicit at times, I would even think the latter option is more probable. Feelings of emotional distress tend to be associated with heart, rather than with the gut.

To me it is a love song based on Irish history. Although it can be sung by either sex, it should properly be sung by a woman. The Irish were not allowed to own land, cattle, sheep, or horses. Therefor the only person who owned a horse was an Englishman. And the finer the horse, the higher the Englishman's social rank. In this case, a Lord. For an Irish woman to fall in love with an English Lord was a disaster because family honor would require her death. And, for the English Lord, while keeping an Irish mistress was chuckled upon, marrying one was a social death by isolation. So, she knows she cannot go with him unless she leaves her family, friends, community, country, and forever. Or face death at her own family's hands. And she knows her Lord will also suffer because of their love. To me, the song is amazing because it tells this story in only a few short sentences, not to mention the beauty of the melody. Only the Irish can tell these type stories so well in both verse and song.